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Struggle.

Confederate statues coming down and Mike Pence, Vice POTUS, stated “I’m someone who believes in more monuments, not less monuments” and “we ought to be celebrating the men and women who have helped our nation move towards a more perfect union and tell the whole story of America.”

And I threw up in my mouth a little.

The Preamble to the Constitution contains the words “in order to form a more perfect union.” A “perfect union” search on this site turns up three (3) posts, but to hear those words from the mouth of someone sitting Vice to the current administration gave me a moment of political cognitive dissonance. And there it is. I struggle. Politicians I disagree with have access and reference rights to the same documents, the same phrases, the same sentiments that I do. That is their right, a requirement even.

As I look to capture Pence’s exact words and a cite today, I discover that Pence walked with civil rights leader John Lewis in Selma, Alabama in 2010. And Pence defended John Lewis’ reporting of incidents at a Tea Party rally in March 2010.

Hello! What is this!? Do I suffer more political cognitive dissonance? Is this more evidence that I’m looking for confirmation for my biases?

No.

As I continued reading, my confirmation bias was confirmed. John Boehner, the then House-Minority-Leader-to-House-Speaker-to-I’m-outta-this-circus-I-resign Republicant of Ohio stated of the Tea Party Not-party “let’s not let a few isolated incidents get in the way of the fact that millions of Americans are scared to death, and want no part of this growing size of government.”

Ah, there it is. John Boehner was concerned for millions of Americans who are scared to death not for civil rights violations, not for persons of color, not for lives that don’t fit a narrow pre-defined narrative, i.e. “white”. His concern was for the millions afraid of a growing government. That was 2010.

This is now.

Now the GOP controls the House, the Senate, and the Prescedensy – well, to the extent it can be controlled — and what are we afraid of now?

Well, you can make your own list but I’m afraid of a government willing to sacrifice many for a few; a government Prescedense hell-bent on warmongering; a government that worships at the altar of capitalism and free market; a government that willingly sells public lands to private investors; a government that inserts itself into private lives while abdicating its regulatory role; and on and on and oh, let’s cut to the chase. I want the Federal government to recognize it’s role in establishing a culture and society that supports the Preamble to Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to forma more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

I started reading Mao’s Last Revolution at the new year. I didn’t get far – slow reader and all that, but the word ‘struggle’ figures prominently – class struggle, party struggle, physical struggle.

Writing the Preamble today? I suggest “… in Order to strugglea more perfect Union …”